Utah Life Magazine March-April 2022 by Flagship Publishing

MARCH/APRIL 2022

Kayenta Fantasy Canyon Lehi Roller Mills Slickrock Trail

p 60

Salt Lake City p 10, 56

Lehi p 26

Jordanelle p 9

Midway p 9

A dramatic sky mimics the color of the dramatic landscape at Red Mountain near Kayenta. Story on p 26.

Photo by Charly Moore. Photos this page, from top: Joshua Hardin (both)

Wonderfully weird Uintah County rock deposits resemble a surrealist painting or an alien world. Story and photographs by Joshua Hardin

Centered on an art village, this Ivins community blends seamlessly with the stunning landscape. Story by Matt Masich

Photographs by Joshua Hardin

As made famous in the film Footloose, this iconic mill has been making premium flour since 1906.

by Lauren Elkins

Photographs by Joshua Hardin

Mountain bikers and four-wheelers alike find thrilling adventures at this Moab-area spot. By Rachel Fixsen

Lehi Roller Mills, p 40

Fantasy Canyon, p 16

Moab p 48

Canyon Point p 8

Kanab p 58

Ivins p 40, 57

Zion National Park p 14

Vernal p 16

Flaming Gorge p 9

Lake Powell p 9

Wellsville

WHEN I WAS younger, I considered everything that happened before I was born to be history. Everything that happened during my lifetime, meanwhile, was simply current events.

MATT MASICH Editor editor@utahlifemag.com

March/April 2022

Volume 5, Number 2

PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Chris Amundson

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Angela Amundson

EDITOR

Matt Masich

PHOTO EDITOR

Joshua Hardin

ADVERTISING SALES

Marilyn Koponen, Lauren Warring

DESIGN

Traci Laurie, Valerie Mosley, Open Look Creative Team

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Visit the World’s Best Backyard

Nestled among the red rocks of Cedar City, Southern Utah University is less than 3 hours from the Wasatch Front with plenty to do on and around campus!

Southern Utah Museum of Art

The Southern Utah Museum of Art is the sculpture housing an art museum you don’t want to miss.

Utah Shakespeare Festival

Tony Award-winning productions are a must-see at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Athletics

Cheer for the red and white of our fighting SUU at one of 15 athletic team events.

National Parks

SUU is within a five-hour drive of more than 20 national parks and monuments, so explore the world at the University of the Parks®️.

Beautiful 125-Year-Old Campus

From events and concerts to art strolls and local festivals, there is always something to do in Cedar City.

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DELIVERIES FROM OUR READERS

Eagles and Olympics

January/February 2022 was a great issue. First, I looked at the photo of my good friend Billy Fenimore and remembered good birding trips with both Billy and his dad (“The Eagles Have Landed in Utah”).

Then, after other great pages, I read the awesome story about the 2002 Olympics (“Show Stopping Games”). At the time, I was a professional ornithologist writing a book on “Utah’s Featured Birds.” I was asked to join reporters from Japan to produce “filler” material for Japanese TV. We travelled to Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area, talked about the Great Salt Lake and got great video of Utah’s state bird, the California gull, and the national bird, the bald eagle. Although I had never communicated through an interpreter, we had a delightful day.

I hope Utah receives the bid for a future Olympics. It was a great opportunity to show off our state and provide fond memories for many individuals.

Keith Evans South Ogden

Train to the Games

I am not a big fan of winter – or, to be more specific, of winter-like weather. I do my outdoor activities during spring, summer and fall. That being said, however, I loved the ’02 Winter Olympics! My wife served as a volunteer during that time, as did my sister. They loved it.

At the time, I was working at the Heber Valley Railroad, and we transported passengers from Heber City to the Soldier Hollow venue in Midway. Three steam locomotives were used to pull three separate trains to Soldier Hollow. There at the platform, a sleigh would take them up to the actual venue to watch the action.

I wish that I could remember the number of passengers we took to Soldier Hollow and back during the Olympics, but I don’t. However, it was a lot. I absolutely hope we get another chance to host the Olympics. Our venues are still in great shape and still being used, so why not?

Bryan Morris Orem

Broadcasting from Farnsworth Peak

I wanted to give you an addition to your great article on Philo T Farnsworth (“The Utahn Who Invented Television,” January/ February 2022). In the Oquirrh Mountains west of Salt Lake City, one of the highest peaks on the north end was renamed Farnsworth Peak back sometime in the 1970s, when KSL-TV teamed up with several other TV stations and FM stations in Salt Lake City to build a very large community broadcasting antenna high in the mountains to increase their coverage area.

KSL had built the first transmitter atop the then un-named peak back in the 1950s. The majority of the FM and TV stations in Salt Lake are now on the community antennas up in the Oquirrhs, and Farnsworth Peak is very visible from either the Salt Lake City or Tooele side because of the large antennas and flashing red lights on top.

It is actually a ridge with several peaks, with antennas on Little Farnsworth, to the south, and Big Farnsworth, to the north. Both are a little higher than 9,000 feet in elevation. At one time, it was the highest broadcasting antenna in the country.

FM and TV station signals are strongest when the broadcasting antenna is within line-of-sight of the receiver – i.e., no mountains blocking it. So putting FM and TV station antennas that high gives them a greater range of broadcasting, and SLC’s FM and TV stations can be heard from Evanston, Wyoming, all the way to Wendover, Nevada, and throughout the Intermountain West.

I was fortunate to work as a DJ and announcer for a number of Salt Lake-area

stations in the 1980s, and the Farnsworth Peak transmitter complex was where our signals all broadcast from. To this day, when I visit my hometown, I still look up at the flashing lights and the broadcast complex atop Farnsworth Peak and marvel at the technology that allows sound and pictures to be listened to and viewed by everyone.

Gary Gardner Desert Hot Springs, California

Partial credit to Idaho

The southern Idaho high school Philo Farnsworth attended was Rigby High School, in Jefferson County’s county seat, midway between Idaho Falls and Rexburg. RHS is my alma mater, and I now live just seven miles outside Rigby.

In the 1980s, an existing building was remodeled to make a museum centered around a room dedicated to Farnsworth and his work. For many years, some of his tubes and other equipment were displayed in two cases in the Rigby High School library. The contents were moved to the museum on its completion. It is a great place to learn more of Farnsworth’s work, as well as history of the surrounding area.

I remember Farnsworth and his wife were grand marshals at Rigby’s Pioneer Day Parade in the 1960s. Rigby is proud of the part this community played and has called itself the home of television. A visit to the museum just off Rigby’s Main Street is worth the time if you’re passing through.

Linda Radford Rigby, Idaho

Kudos to Philo

I just had the chance to read the January/ February 2022 issue. Wow! I have always known that Philo Farnsworth invented the television, because he is our own homegrown hero.

With your excellent article, I now understand why he never got the recognition he deserved outside of Utah and Idaho. Well done.

Becky Hansen Murray

Wonderful wizard of books

Great feature on bookstore owner and would-be wizard Ken Sanders (“Ken Sanders Rare Books,” November/December 2021).

What a fascinating character. Sanders’ description of antiquarian books as time machines that “open worlds to you” is an important reminder of the access that

stores like his provide. Brick-and-mortar bookstores are few enough, much less those owned by such a stimulating, iconoclastic individual.

Clearly, Ken Sanders Rare Books is a resource for the imagination, considering how many creative projects he and the store have generated. My favorite example was the tale of his ingenious “biblio-detective work,” which inspired the book The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective and a World of Literary Obsession.

Thank you for calling attention to the potential loss of this unique and important Utah treasure. I hope Sanders’ friends and supporters convince him to reopen after recent development forces him to close the doors on his current location.

Amy Wright Clarksville, Tennessee

SEND YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Thank you for reading and writing! We enjoy hearing from our subscribers around Utah and the world and hope this issue of the magazine inspires you to grace us with your words.

The deadline to send letters for the next issue of Utah Life is April 1. One lucky letter writer will be selected at random to win a free subscription renewal. This issue’s winner is Bryan Morris of Orem. Congrats!

Send your “Letter to the Editor” by dashing off an email to editor@utahlifemag.com or pen us a letter and mail it to the address at the front of this magazine.

THE BUZZ AROUND UTAH

Utah home to continent’s longest aerial stairway

by ALLIE WISNIEWSKI

Wind howling in your ears, you focus on placing one foot in front of the other. A glance left and right confirms you’re completely surrounded by massive expanses of rugged Utah desert. Birds whoosh by your head, almost too close for comfort, circling wide open skies. Suspended a daunting 400 feet above the ground, this gravity-defying ladder in the sky is called the Cave Peak Stairway.

Located on the grounds of the Amangiri resort in Canyon Point, the aerial stairway is an adventure that requires an adventure just to reach it. Before attempting the stairway, guests must first complete the Cave Peak Via Ferrata Trail.

Italian for “iron road,” the via ferrata leads visitors up steep, jagged climbs via cables and rungs fixed to rock faces. The stairway at the finish richly rewards the

brave, offering panoramic views of the surrounding landscape. At 200 feet long and featuring 120 steps, it allows people to float above a pristine red-rock desert – if they can stomach that first lurch into midair.

Those who take on the stairway receive more than just an adrenaline rush. There’s an almost spiritual aspect about the experience, as well, Amangiri General Manager Julien Surget said.

“That first step off the edge is a little gut-wrenching, but you’re tethered to the installation the whole way,” he said. “You really start to get into a meditative rhythm of one step after the next.”

It takes about 8 minutes to complete the whole stairway, an experience Surget called “enthralling, but in a very mindful way.”

Surget has been involved with the stairway from its conception, having seen a photo of the “Stairway to Heaven” installation in Austria, and feeling inspired

to bring something similar to Amangiri here in Utah. He worked closely with a team of engineers to plan the Cave Peak Stairway.

“It was fun to be part of the decision-making process: where it was going to be, where it was going to end, determining the steepness of the walkway,” Surget said. “I actually put the very first anchor in the rock that was going to hold the supporting cable.”

When Cave Peak Stairway opened in 2021, it became the longest aerial stairway in North America. It is open to guests staying at Amangiri resort, including youngsters, depending on their abilities and adventurous spirit.

Defying acrophobia, an intrepid guest at the Amangiri resort braves the Cave Peak Aerial Stairway, which is suspended as high as 400 feet above the ground.

Wanted: Photos of Utah’s river otters

by LISA TRUESDALE

Playful, social and inquisitive, river otters are a delight to observe in the wild as they frolic on the riverbank or glide effortlessly through the water, hunting for their next meal.

Yet the same traits that make river otters a favorite among wildlife watchers in Utah are also what nearly led to their extinction. Prized by early fur trappers for their sleek, thick, water-resistant coats, river otters are relatively easy to catch, since they’re more than willing to investigate interesting objects – like a shiny fur trap, glinting in the sun.

No one knows for sure how many river otters currently live within the state’s borders, but the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources would really like to. That’s why they recently called upon the public to report any river otter sightings, and to include photo or video evidence. Even if people can’t manage to snap an image of the animal itself, they are encouraged to document its tracks or feces. Any information at all will help the agency determine whether its persistent reintroduc-

Exploring

by LISA TRUESDALE

tion efforts, begun in 1989, have been successful.

“River otters have made a great comeback,” said Kim Hersey, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resource’s mammal conservation coordinator. River otters were quite rare in Utah 30 years ago, she said. The population, already depleted due to the early fur trade, was also hit hard by water pollution. “But today, they can be found in Utah’s largest streams, and their distribution seems to be increasing,” Hersey said. “They’re a wildlife management success story.”

Spotting river otters in the wild is difficult but not impossible. These semi-aquatic carnivores are most active just as the sun is coming up, or just before sunset, so the timing has to be just right. People are most likely to spy an otter if they’re on the river rather than next to it, perhaps along the Green and Colorado River system, from Flaming Gorge to Lake Powell. Hersey added that there have been quite a few recent confirmed otter sightings on the Colorado River, upstream of Moab to Dewey Bridge. The animals can also be found in the Provo River, from Jordanelle to Utah Lake.

Utah one building at a time

Midway might be the only city in Utah whose town hall prominently features a glockenspiel clock. People who find themselves near town hall exactly on the hour are often startled to hear what sounds like … yodeling?

For those wondering what a Tyrolean cuckoo clocktype contraption is doing on a building in Utah, Martha Bradley Evans has the answer to that architectural quandary and more in her new book, An Architectural Guide to Utah.

An architecture professor at the University of Utah, Bradley Evans skips technical jargon in favor of entertaining readers with fascinating historical anecdotes, wise observations and 275 photos.

“Buildings evoke a sense of the human experience,” Bradley Evans writes. “They are living, breathing voices of the past and hold clues as to what we most hope for in life.”

She groups the buildings into eight regions, making it easy to plan an architectural road trip in a given area.

Bradley Evans knows which questions

River otters aren’t the easiest critters to spot, so state wildlife officials ask the public to send photos of otter sightings.

Just because river otters are social with each other, it doesn’t mean they want to hang out with humans – or their dogs. As with other wildlife, people should not feed them or disturb their habitat, and should generally keep their distance.

“They’re not easy to see,” said Hersey, “so count yourself lucky if you do.”

Anyone lucky enough to spot an otter in Utah can email photos or other evidence of their sighting to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources at utahotters@gmail.com.

inquiring minds crave answers to, like why the building east of Ogden’s Royal Hotel was originally built as a jai alai court; what the mostly faded “ZCMI All Overs” logo means on the Moroni Cooperative; and, of course, why there’s that glockenspiel in Midway.

As for that Midway mystery, it turns out the building’s architectural style honors the Swiss immigrants who settled in the area in the 1860s. Today, anyone can stop by to watch the colorful figures pop out through little doors and spin around to the “Kufstein Song,” a traditional folk tune with a lilting melody that sounds distinctly like yodeling.

An Architectural Travel Guide to Utah

By Martha Bradley Evans

The University of Utah Press 437 pages, paperback, $37

All of Postal Service’s illegible mail gets deciphered in Salt Lake City

by ALLIE WISNIEWSKI

Modern computers do a remarkable job reading addresses on the more than 50 billion pieces of first-class mail the U.S. Postal Service handles each year. But what happens to letters with hastily scrawled addresses, rendered illegible by one too many cross-outs or scribble-overs? Is there a secret vault somewhere, filled with the country’s most indecipherable mail?

Not quite. There is, however, Salt Lake City’s USPS Remote Encoding Center, a facility dedicated to connecting even the messiest-looking mail with its destination.

From the outside, the Remote Encod-

ing Center, or REC, looks much like any other office building. The interior is a different story. The building’s main floor is the definition of organized chaos – a cavernous, warehouse-sized room housing hundreds of cubicles, with hundreds of focused heads poking out from each one. The only sound is the diligent clicking of keyboards; talking is not permitted, so as not to distract employees from their work.

When computers at mail processing plants can’t read a zip code, address or other aspect of a piece of mail’s destination, they snap an image of that label or handwritten address and send it to the REC. There, the REC’s computers show

the images to data conversion operators, or DCOs, who interpret the missing or garbled information. The corrected address is then sent back to the processing plants, and the previously unreadable mail is shipped to its destination.

“You might be able to read your own handwriting, but not every computer can,” said Rod Spurgeon, a USPS communications specialist and expert on all things illegible. Handwritten addresses have many ways to go wrong: smudges, letters squashed together, cursive penmanship that’s too skinny or slanted to register. In fact, training cubicles are furnished with posters featuring the cursive alphabet, as knowledge of cursive is no longer considered a ubiquitous skillset.

Spurgeon started out as a DCO at a REC in Glendale, Arizona, where he worked for 14 years. That particular REC no longer exists, nor do the 53 others that existed back in 1997, before computers were efficient and consistent enough to

process most mail on their own. The REC in Salt Lake City is now the only facility of its kind in the nation, chosen as the lone survivor due to its consistently superior productivity.

The REC employs almost a thousand people, many of whom have worked there for more than a decade. The facility looks for two main qualities in its employees – speed and accuracy. In 2020, the REC processed 20 billion images, with the average DCO processing a whopping 876 images per hour.

While being able to connect people with their mail is always satisfying, Spurgeon said, his personal favorite images to decipher always arrive around the holidays.

“I liked seeing all the cards, letters to Santa and the special images people put on them,” he said. “I would see handdrawn images on envelopes and cards to grandma or parents. It’s just so heartwarming – I love being able to do this for our customers.”

A data conversion operator at the U.S. Postal Service’s Remote Encoding Center in Salt Lake City interprets less-than-perfect penmanship to get mail to its destination.

Your Connection to the National Parks

Bryce Canyon National Park

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park

Allie Wisniewski

History desert in The

Utah Trivia

TINY TOWNS

Challenge

by BRIAN WANGSGARD

Rest out West

1 The population of what Northern Utah town swells way above its census figure of 625 when raspberry shakes are in season?

2 Fremont, a town of 100 residents in Wayne County, is named for John C. Fremont, a Western explorer and the first presidential candidate of which party?

3 Randolph, the seat of Rich County with just over 500 residents, is only 6 miles from Utah’s border with what state?

4 Before the completion of Interstate 15 through central Utah, an infamous two-lane stretch of highway near little Levan in Juab County was widely known by what ghoulish name?

No peeking, answers on page 61.

5 A hard one: What small town’s name has only four letters, three of them vowels, none of them “y”?

Ashley Estell Tucker

6 Eight confident Utah towns with fewer than 1,000 residents include the word “City” in their municipality’s name.

7 A New Yorker purchased the townsite of Mount Nebo in 1907 and promptly renamed it Elberta after a variety of peach.

Vineyard, which was a tiny town of only 115 residents in 2010, had grown by over 10,000 percent by the time of the 2020 census.

Tselakai Dezza was named by members of a colony of Middle Eastern immigrants who first settled there prior to Utah statehood.

Land o’ Goshen! The town of that name was once the home of an improbably named frontier outpost called Fort Sodom.

The last section of Interstate 15 completed in Utah in 1990 bypassed a town of less than 500 that shares a name with which historic Massachusetts city?

a. Salem

b. Plymouth

c. Lynn

Some small towns have names associated with a nationality. Which two of those below are tiny towns in Utah?

a. Dutch John

b. Swedenborg

c. Spanish Valley

Longtime residents of Washington County direct visitors to Veyo to get which of these tasty delights?

a. Pies

b. Navajo tacos

c. Buffalo burgers

Corinne, the self-proclaimed “Gentile Capital of Utah” in its 19th century heyday, is often visited by people traveling to what nearby destination?

a. Dugway Proving Grounds

b. Flaming Gorge Reservoir

c. Golden Spike National

Historical Park

The name of which of these towns is the name of a nearby town spelled backwards?

a. Nova

b. Samak

c. Aglama

Rinus Baak/Dreamstime

Skyler Brown

Monumental Exposure

EDITORS’ CHOICE

PHOTOGRAPH

TODD CAUDLE

ATRANSITORY waterfall plunges from the top of a 1,000-foot cliff at the Narrows at Zion National Park. The crashing water echoes off the canyon walls, which are all the more vividly colored after getting soaked in a brief but intense April shower.

The Narrows is the last stop on the regular shuttle bus that visitors must use during Zion’s busiest months, but the rainy weather meant the bus was all but empty during photographer Todd Caudle’s visit. Along the way, the driver told him about all the spots he had seen waterfalls briefly pop up after a storm.

When spring rain squalls hit Zion, water starts running off the cliffs within a few minutes, Caudle said. He took this shot when the waterfall was at its peak flow; by 45 minutes later, it had slowed to a trickle before disappearing altogether. “The rain comes, it drains, and it just fades away,” Caudle said.

IN EACH ISSUE , Monumental Exposure features a reader’s photograph of Utah – landscapes, architecture, attractions, events, people or wildlife.

Submit your best photographs for the chance to be published in Utah Life . Send digital images with detailed photo descriptions and your contact information to photos@utahlifemag.com or visit utahlifemag.com/contribute.

This photo was taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera equipped with a Canon EF 24-105mm lens at 45mm, exposed at ISO 200, f/22 for 6 seconds.

An

army of petrified monsters lies frozen in sandstone

story

and photographs

by JOSHUA HARDIN

Sandstone has been sculpted into surreal shapes by erosive natural forces at Fantasy Canyon in Uintah County.

IN AN EPOCH long ago, the forces of good and evil clashed along a primordial lake. At the end of the battle, the defeated evil forces were frozen where they stood, their ghoulish figures suspended in time at a place called Fantasy Canyon.

So goes one of the origin stories told about this strange Uintah County locale. Though Fantasy Canyon’s wonderfully weird rock deposits bear a passing resemblance to warriors from a fantasy epic, its unique sandstone features probably owe their existence more to geology than mythology.

Despite its mystical moniker, Fantasy Canyon is, indeed, a real place. The 10acre Bureau of Land Management recreation site sits about 40 miles south of Vernal, surrounded by a maze of roads servicing oil and gas development rigs.

The self-guided, .6-mile Fantasy Canyon Loop Trail is lined with interpretive signs pointing out the unusual natural wonders. Hiking the trail takes less than an hour, but more time is necessary for visitors to appreciate the sci-fi-like scenery and imagine what creatures the rock formations resemble, like children staring up at the ever-morphing shapes of clouds in the sky.

A face-like formation seems to scream from the interior walls of the remote Uinta Basin attraction situated along the shore of an ancient lake.

Visitors hike along a boulder-strewn section of the .6-mile trail encircling Fantasy Canyon’s wonderful and terrifying assortment of hoodoos.

Flood channels are recent examples of erosion, which continues to wash away siltstone and shale, exposing the strangely shaped formations of stronger remaining sandstone, like a rock resembling a human foot.

Historically, American Indian tribes admired but were wary of the area. In 1972, Ute elder Muse Harris told The Salt Lake Tribune a legend his people tell about this landscape.

“One day, the story goes, the evil creatures of the nether regions, tired of living in the dark and dank, decided to dig up to the surface and take over everything above and below the earth,” Harris said. “They dug, and the ground trembled and rumbled in their work.”

The story explains that coyotes, eagles and wild horses summoned the world’s most powerful medicine man, who asked the western wind god and the rain god for help but was unsuccessful in trapping the evil invaders. The medicine man then turned to the god of the north, who used ice and snow to freeze the beings.

“The Devil Chief, the Great Mother Witch, the Magician and all the rest stand there just as they stood at the instant the cold struck long ago,” Harris said. “When the warmth came back, again the West Wind blew, and as the ice melted, the dust took its place and now the monsters stand in the pit they dug, all of them turned to stone. It is a warning to the evil ones down in hell to leave the good green earth alone.”

Early Anglo visitors also associated the strange formations with hellish creatures. Famed paleontologist Earl Douglass, who discovered the fossil quarry at Dinosaur National Monument, called Fantasy Canyon “Hades Pit” as part of a larger region he plotted on maps as “The Devils Playground.” Though Douglass didn’t discover dinosaur fossils here, modern paleontologists find ancient mammal bones and tortoise shells nearby.

FANTASY CANYON’S EERIE

pillars and pinnacles are made of quartzose sandstone formed 38 to 50 million years ago. Back then, the surrounding basin was occupied by a 150-mile-wide, half-miledeep lake called Lake Uinta. The canyon is along the east shore of the former lakebed.

Sediment eroded from the surrounding highlands, and loose sand, silt and clay melded into sandstone and shale. After centuries of erosion, durable sandstone remained, while easily weathered siltstone and shale washed away, exposing the curiously shaped formations.

The last scarlet light of sunset glows on a weathered rock formation above a blooming bouquet of rabbitbrush.

“The Witch” is one of Fantasy Canyon’s most recognizable landmarks.

Local legends describe how wicked supernatural beings froze into rock.

Striped between the sandstones and shales are black ribbons of coal-like material along the small washes on the trail. Some of these ribbons bear magnetite, a magnetic mineral sometimes used for manufacturing steel. Also present is Gilsonite, a solidified hydrocarbon named after Samuel H. Gilson, who in the 19th century promoted the mineral as a unique varnish, a waterproof coating for wooden pilings and wire cable insulation, among other uses. Today, Gilsonite is still mined near Bonanza, about 15 miles away.

Fantasy Canyon’s existing geologic wonders will eventually give way to weather and erode into sand, but new formations will appear as topsoil washes away. Locals refer to the canyon as “Nature’s China Shop,” because the formations are so fragile. A formation known as the Teapot was an example of the canyon’s delicate nature. The feature, popularized by photographs taken by visitors until the early 2000s, toppled of unknown causes and shattered on the canyon floor in September 2006.

Though the twisted rock formations evoke images of fantastical animals –some are named Flying Porpoise, Diving Duck and Prairie Dog, for example – real wildlife such as jackrabbits, raptors and western pygmy rattlesnakes inhabit the area less conspicuously. Visitors should give special care not to disturb the venomous reptiles when exploring the environment.

A visit to Fantasy Canyon is like viewing the melting waxy subjects of a Salvador Dali masterpiece in an outdoor museum. The landscape is not a painting, desert mirage or experience evoked by hallucinogenic substances but instead an experience more unbelievable than any tale of make-believe.

VERNAL

Kayenta

Art-filled Ivins enclave creates a model for living lightly on the land

story by MATT MASICH photographs by JOSHUA HARDIN

IN A STATE abounding with spectacular red rocks, Red Mountain is stunning enough to stop even the most jaded viewers in their tracks. Overlooking the city of Ivins in southwest Utah, Red Mountain has a flat top and cliffs as tall as 1,600 feet on three of its sides, which perhaps makes it more mesa than mountain. However, it is undeniably, emphatically red.

The mountain’s appearance changes throughout the day as the sun sweeps shadows across the textured Navajo sandstone. Down Red Mountain’s eastern slope is Tuacahn Center for the Arts and its famous amphitheater. Just east of that is Snow Canyon State Park, a place so beautiful that locals say it would be a national park if it were located anywhere besides natural wonder-glutted southern Utah.

On the other side of Red Mountain is Kayenta, a housing development within Ivins city limits. The heart of the community is the Kayenta Art Village, filled with

art galleries, studios, a restaurant and a state-of-the-art theater.

Nearly 600 homes surround the art village, yet driving on the main thoroughfare, Kayenta Parkway, hardly any of them are visible – and that’s the whole point. Kayenta is a rare place where the built environment is completely subservient to the natural landscape.

KAYENTA FOUNDER TERRY Marten has still never quite figured out why he lost control of his truck on Thanksgiving Day 1971. The air was misty, and there was ice on the road as he headed west on Old Highway 91 near Ivins, but he was used to those conditions – he regularly drove this stretch on the way to Brian Head, where he was building housing developments in the early days of the ski resort.

As Terry went over a slight dip in the road, his truck “got squirrely.” The vehicle left the road, then rolled onto its side near a dirt embankment. Unhurt, he climbed

Kayenta’s desert architecture takes inspiration from Ancestral Puebloan structures. A trompe l’oeil painting adorns the art village.

Kinetic wind sculptures by Lyman Whitaker twirl in the breeze all across Kayenta, where the artist’s work is made by hand. Whitaker Studios isn’t open to the public, but his art is sold at Kayenta’s Datura Gallery.

out of the passenger-side window.

“I fought my way up the side of the bank,” he said. “As I did, the sun came out, and it was beautiful. I looked at Red Mountain and pinched myself.” He wanted to make sure he truly had survived the crash.

Some motorists soon stopped to see that he was all right, then went to summon help. As Terry waited, he stared transfixed at Red Mountain, which seemed to radiate in the sunlight. By the time the police arrived 40 minutes later, he had determined that someday he would build a community on the land in front of the mountain.

The land wasn’t for sale, but he kept his eye on it. Five years later, in 1976, he purchased nearly 2,000 acres when it became available. However, he didn’t start building Kayenta that year. Or the next. He didn’t build the first home until 1982, and he built just one home in each of the next two years.

“I thought the site was so beautiful, it should be as untouched as possible,” Terry said.

To do that, he devised ways to make the homes in Kayenta merge seamlessly into the landscape. All structures are low to the ground, nestled into the earth. Only native vegetation may be planted; 75 percent

of all property must be kept in its natural state. And all houses must use colors that blend into the natural environment.

As building started to pick up in the 1990s, Terry recruited his architect son, Matt Marten, to design homes, each of which is custom-made to complement the landscape of its specific lot.

Finding colors to camouflage houses into the scenery isn’t as easy as simply matching the color of the local dirt, he said.

“The earth here is bright orange,” Matt said. “Looking at the desert, you actually see more sagebrush and a little bit of earth color that pops through.” When the silvery green sage mixes with the red-orange soil, the result is a warm neutral shade. As Matt described it, “We have six colors to pick from, and they’re all brown.”

The Kayenta home designs and color palette makes the community all but invisible when gazing at Red Mountain. The effect is even more pronounced at night – because Kayenta has no streetlights, the only light comes from the moon and stars.

NOT EVERYONE WHO lives in Kayenta is an artist, though it sometimes feels that way, considering the heart of the community is the Kayenta Art Vil-

lage. Like so many things in Kayenta, the art village emerged organically, bit by bit, over the course of decades.

Art seems to be in the air at Kayenta –or, more specifically, on the wind. It’s difficult to go far without seeing one of Lyman

Federman

Greg

owns Xetava Gardens, the restaurant the art village grew up around.

Whitaker’s copper wind sculptures spinning in the breeze. At the Whitaker Studio in the art village, the artist’s team makes each piece by hand according to Whitaker’s designs, then ships them to galleries around the world.

Whitaker conceived of his signature artistic style in Kayenta in the 1980s, when he had a studio that neighbored Terry’s office.

“He’d built his first wind sculpture, and he was out there watching it spin in the yard,” Terry said. When he came over to ask Whitaker about it, the artist was excited about his creation but wondered whether anyone would buy it.

“Do you think you could get $200 for it?” Whitaker asked.

“You never know,” Terry said. “You might be able to.”

Today, Whitaker’s most elaborate wind sculptures sell for $5,000 or more.

Whitaker Studio is closed to the public, but its work is for sale at Datura Gallery, the first gallery that opened in Kayenta. Near the gallery, about a dozen wind sculptures spin outside Xetava Gardens Cafe, the restaurant that kickstarted the art village.

Xetava was built in 1999 by Dan Pettegrew, who opened it as a little place to sell plants, books and coffee. The interior was built in circular, kiva-like fashion. In the center of the main room, Pettegrew constructed a stone monolith he called the Mother Earth Rock, constructed from 11 separate stones taken from the base of Red Mountain. Xetava’s unusual name –pronounced “zay-TAH-vuh” – is a combination of “xeriscape” and “lava,” referring to Kayenta’s distinctive landscaping.

It wasn’t until Greg Federman bought Xetava in 2006 that its menu branched out very far from coffee. Even then, the menu was limited, as there was no kitchen; Federman did what he could with a microwave, waffle maker, a small pizza oven and a couple of toaster ovens.

The rudimentary setup and relatively isolated location didn’t seem like an obvious recipe for success to the lawyer who helped Federman purchase the place. He still remembers the lawyer’s incredulity when trying to wrap his head around the scheme.

“Let me get this straight,” Federman re-

Photographer Charly Moore displays some of his remarkable landscape photography at Mystic Canyon Light Gallery. Kayenta is filled with art, such as this colorful outdoor painting of an American bison.

called the lawyer saying. “You have no savings; you’re taking an equity line on your house; you have no equipment for a restaurant – there is no storage or refrigerators … what are you doing? You’re in the middle of nowhere with no advertising budget. How do you plan to make money?”

“I don’t know,” Federman replied. “It just seems like there should be a restaurant here.”

Federman’s hunch turned out to be right. It took five years before he made a profit, but Xetava eventually became Kayenta’s go-to gathering place. In time, he was able to build an actual kitchen and expand the dining room. The menu grew, thanks in part to suggestions from the customers. Federman now owns Xetava’s entire building and recently opened an electric-bike rental shop downstairs from the restaurant.

THE ART VILLAGE sprang up around Xetava. Though it’s hard to see it now, many galleries were built in converted RV garages. At Datura, Juniper Sky, Gallery 873 and others, people can buy fine oil paintings, ceramics, jewelry and more.

With the visual and culinary arts covered, Terry’s next step was to build a center for the performing arts. He discussed his hopes with actress Jan Broberg, who was living in nearby Santa Clara. Broberg had extensive experience in film, TV and the stage – she played Maria in The Sound of Music at Tuacahn – and gave him detailed recommendations on how she would set up a small, intimate theater.

Broberg didn’t hear from Terry for nearly 10 years. Then, in January 2017, he invited her to meet him at Xetava but

didn’t tell her why. He took her over to a new building with a sign reading, “Center for the Arts at Kayenta.” He had built the theater she had described all those years ago and offered her a job as its director.

It was an emotional moment for Broberg as he gave her a tour of the new Center for the Arts. When he showed her the women’s restroom, fitted with seven stalls, Broberg began to cry. Terry was perplexed by her reaction.

“Isn’t that what you told me?” he asked. “You said, ‘To get 200 women through a 15-minute intermission, you have to have seven stalls.’ ”

“Yeah,” Broberg said, “but nobody ever listens to me.”

“Well, I did,” Marten said. “I wrote down everything you talked about.”

In Kayenta Art Village, artist Judith Hutcheson works on a painting at Hutch Studio, which she shares with her sister, Deborah, who makes jewelry. Many galleries and studios are clustered together in the art village.

The mission of the theater is to put on plays, musicals and events of the professional quality found at Tuacahn but to branch out into more challenging subject matters. Recent productions have included Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Full Monty. Renowned Utah composer Kurt Bestor puts on an intimate Christmas performance each year, and the theater hosts national touring acts like the Three Redneck Tenors.

Because Kayenta’s residents include so many people who have retired after long, distinguished careers, the Center for the Arts’ lecture series has plenty of expert speakers to draw upon. Recently, the former director of Los Angeles’ Griffith Observatory Planetarium, who lives in Kayenta, gave talks on the planet Mercury and the Mars rover. In May, the center will put on its second annual Festival of the Americas with performers and vendors from indigenous cultures.

THOUGH KAYENTA BEGAN

more than 45 years ago, only about a quarter of the land has been developed. That is astoundingly slow growth compared to typical housing developments, which are often completely built in a couple of years. That pace is deliberate, Matt said. For him and his dad, doing things right always trumps doing things fast.

“We don’t take it for granted that this unspoiled landscape will always be here,” he said. “You can ruin it really easily.”

He works with each new resident to design their house specifically to their wishes, while also ensuring the home meshes perfectly with its surroundings. The Martens take such care because they feel it is the right thing to do, but also because they will have to live with the results.

Both of the Martens live in Kayenta, so wherever Matt goes, he meets people who live in homes he created. If he’s not careful, that can mean he’s always on the clock. To prevent that, his friends have instituted a policy of not bringing up business during social occasions; if someone has an issue with their house they’d like to discuss, they know to set an official appointment.

It is rare for a developer to be so personally invested in a community, Matt said. Many developers swoop in from out

Matt Marten relaxes in one of the homes he designed. People learn about acrylic paint at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta. Students at the center’s Kayenta Arts Academy perform alongside professionals.

Alan Holben

of state, build as many homes as they can in the least amount of time, then leave. Because the landscape is the reason many people want to live in southeast Utah, he said, it doesn’t make sense to wreck that landscape. The Martens are committed to making sure their landscape isn’t wrecked.

At the rate Kayenta is being built, it will be 130 years or so before all available land is developed. Neither Terry nor Matt envisions being around that long, and they have no other family members able to take over for them. There will come a time, sooner or later, that they will have to transfer stewardship of Kayenta to new hands.

When the Martens eventually have to sell Kayenta, they hope to find a buyer willing to follow their original vision. But the community members themselves have embraced that vision so deeply, and the results have been so profoundly positive, that it is hard to imagine residents accepting anything that strays from the Kayenta way of living lightly, and artistically, on the land.

Kayenta’s 600 homes and other buildings are designed to be nearly perfectly camouflaged against the silver-green sage and red earth.

Realty ONE Group

UTAH THROUGH OUR POETS

Poetry

In this issue, our poets explore Utahns’ complex relationship with the desert. The state’s arid landscapes are full of contradictions – the austere beauty beckons people in, while the heat and lack of water drive them away. The climate can be brutal, yet few places can match the almost spiritual serenity of the Utah desert

Tad Bowman

Megadrought

Gwendolyn Soper, Spring City

The flower is made of non-flower elements. We can describe the flower as being full of everything. There is nothing that is not present in the flower.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

The governor asked us to pray up a storm. A local told my husband tree rings show it’s the worst drought in five-hundred years.

That the rains may come in a gentle manner beneficial to our valley, Brother J. Watson prayed from the pulpit.

Our stream is dry. The alpacas are licking the mud so my husband is off to IFA to buy a huge stock tank.

There’s not water to grow enough alfalfa in the pasture for our neighbor’s cows. It’s real bad. I’ll have to order extra bales from Idaho, he said.

I look at the milkweed wilting in simmering shade –a few caterpillars escape the gaze of hungry wasps and I wonder out loud where has all the water gone if every flower contains a cloud?

The Deserts of Utah

Garrold Leigh Glidden, St. George

They were here in the deserts of Utah, the early Navajo, Paiute, Shoshone and the Ute … witnesses to sandstone buttes, mesas and canyons, with mountains set on blankets of red, salmon and gold.

Deserts were fruitful and bountiful and, for them, rich in life and varied in habitat. Under both a bright sun and under a canopy of stars, they walked softly on the earth.

From spring through fall, they saw desert sage bloom extraordinarily showy; seeing bees, butterflies and hummingbirds drawn to deep blue-violet flower spikes.

Desert sage was sacred for its light and woody aroma used in their medicine and smudging ceremonies. It provided succor to clear out evil spirits, to dispel disrespect for and to protect their lands.

When I walk through the wonders that are the deserts that are Utah, I am mindful that I make no smudge sticks from sacred sage.

The Lakota, Chumash and the Hopi offered their prayers to the Creator on the smoke from the desert sage, perhaps even to bless desert lands.

But as I ponder small mysteries among the great as I walk on Utah’s desert lands, my thoughts and prayers are lifted alone upon the beauty from the sacred desert sage.

The Bliss of Silence

Vaughn Neeld, Cañon City, Colorado

Outside my windows are mountain lions, tumbleweeds, lizards, scorpions. Here, in this place in the sun, I construct jigsaw puzzles of dry places. Savor the bliss of silence.

Sunrise lights a sandstone formation in the Upper Blue Hills. Prickly pear cactus blooms in Snow Canyon State Park, near St. George.

West Utah Desert

Michael

Shoemaker, Magna

Crusted earth crunches beneath my feet pulsating and throbbing heat between the pale desert floor and shimmering white sky is a mirage which makes it appear as if a purple mountain has risen and levitates above the ground. A light puff of dust from a distant gully reminds me of the Pony Express riders and that I am not the first to gaze on this openness, a land of expanding wonders. I find what I am searching. Sublime quietness beyond comprehension, limitless clouds and a freedom reawakened and alive in me.

WE INVITE YOU to submit poems inspired by Utah for future issues of Utah Life. The July/August 2022 issue’s theme is “Pioneers,” with a deadline of May 1. The September/October 2022 issue’s theme is “Coming Home,” with a deadline of July 1. Visit utahlifemag.com/poetry-submission to submit your poems, or email to poetry@utahlifemag.com.

MaryAnn Nelson

Air Fryer Favorites

LIGHT AND CRISPY TASTES FOR ALL OCCASIONS

recipes and photographs by DANELLE MCCOLLUM

THE AIR FRYER has gone from novelty to necessity in record time. By frying food in circulated hot air in lieu of hot oil, the kitchen device allows cooks to prepare hot and crispy food without getting greasy. Here are some of our favorite air fryer creations for sides, entrees and desserts.

Asian Sesame Broccoli

Garnished with toasted sesame seeds, this crispy broccoli side dish bursts with the flavors of ginger, garlic and soy sauce, while honey adds a hint of sweetness.

Heat air fryer to 400°. Place broccoli in large bowl. Add olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, garlic powder, ginger, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to coat well.

Transfer broccoli to air fryer basket and cook 8-10 minutes, shaking basket halfway through cooking. Transfer broccoli to serving bowl and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds before serving.

2 cups broccoli florets

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp ground ginger

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

Serves 6-8

Chicken Chimichangas

Stuffed with shredded chicken and pepper jack cheese, these chimichangas have the same crispy tortilla exterior as traditional deep-fried chimichangas without the extra calories.

In medium bowl, combine chicken, lime juice, cheese, salsa verde, diced chiles, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Place about 1/2 cup of filling on bottom 1/3 of tortilla. Wrap tortilla around the filling, folding edges in toward center as you roll. Place seam side down on parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling. Heat air fryer to 400°. Spray chimichangas with cooking spray. Add 2-3 chimichangas to air fryer, seam side down. Cook about 8 minutes, turning once halfway through cooking, until crisp and golden brown. Repeat with remaining chimichangas. Serve with lettuce, avocado, salsa, sour cream, etc. and other favorite taco toppings.

3 cups cooked shredded chicken

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

1/4 cup salsa verde (green salsa)

1 4-oz can diced green chiles

1/2 tsp cumin

Salt and pepper, to taste

6 8-inch flour tortillas

Non-stick cooking spray

Lettuce, avocado, salsa, sour cream or other toppings, if desired

Serves 6

Molten Chocolate Cakes

This rich dessert for two is ready to eat just 20 minutes after prep work begins. The trick to achieving the cakes’ signature gooey, molten center is not to overcook them. In some air fryers, 8 minutes may be all that’s needed, while others might require 10 minutes; it is best to err on the side of underbaking. If one’s air fryer is large enough, the recipe can be doubled to make four cakes. Cakes can be topped with whipped cream, berries or ice cream.

Butter two 6-oz ramekins and dust with granulated sugar. In medium saucepan, heat butter, chocolate and cream over medium-low heat, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Whisk in flour until mixture is smooth.

In small bowl, whisk sugar, egg and egg yolk until thick and pale. Fold egg mixture, 1/3 at a time, into chocolate mixture until well combined. Divide batter between prepared ramekins. Heat air fryer to 300°. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until edges are firm but centers are just set. Transfer to wire rack and cool for 5 minutes. Top with whipped cream, ice cream or fresh berries, if desired.

1/4 cup butter, plus more for greasing ramekins

2 Tbsp sugar, plus more for dusting ramekins

2 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)

2 Tbsp heavy cream

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp flour

1 egg, room temperature

1 egg yolk, room temperature Whipped cream or other toppings, if desired

Serves 2

What’s in Your Recipe Box?

The editors are interested in featuring your favorite family recipes. Send your recipes (and memories inspired by your recipes) to editor@utahlifemag.com.

LEHI ROLLER MILLS

Grinding wheat into premium flour at the mill made famous in Footloose

by LAUREN ELKINS

The main Lehi Roller Mills building has looked almost exactly the same since local farmers built it in 1906.

Joshua Hardin

WHEN KEN BRAILS -

FORD was a boy, his grandpa drove him through Lehi, passing the town’s famous Lehi Roller Mills. One day, I want to own that, he thought, looking up at the three-story, white-andred building and the silos nearby filled with thousands of bushels of wheat.

Brailsford hadn’t yet walked the steps inside the mill, worn down from decades of use by past workers. He didn’t know that students at neighboring Lehi High School would come out to their cars at the end of the school day to find them lightly dusted with flour. He didn’t know about the manual labor to work the flour packer that used to take four employees. He didn’t know about the millers who stayed with the company for decades after learning the trade of what it takes to produce high-quality flour.

He didn’t know the mill’s history. But once he grew up and ran KEB Enterprises, the company that would one day acquire the mill from the Robinson family, he learned.

LEHI ROLLER MILLS HAS been a symbol for the town itself for more than 100 years. Along the way, it became an icon of American film thanks to its prominent appearance as a setting in the 1984 film Footloose.

In 1906, the community needed a new mill to replace a previous mill lost in a fire. Lehi Mill & Elevator Co. started as a co-op, funded by community members and local businesses. The mill produced its first sack of flour on April 2, 1906, powered by a 50-horsepower motor. The equipment in the mill included four sets of double rollers, one washer, two purifiers, two reels, a cleaner, dust roller, gyrator, separator and bran duster.

That year, the mill’s capacity was 70 bushels of wheat per day. It took only a couple of months to realize that the community demand was higher. Less than a year after opening, the mill added an elevator with a capacity of 10,000 bushels.

An ad ran in the Lehi Banner in 1907: “WANTED – 5000 bushels of wheat at

When Lehi Roller Mills was built, roller mills were the latest in milling technology; today, all mills are roller mills. General Manager Brock Knight explains how the mill’s machinery turns wheat into flour.

Lehi Mills

75¢ per bushel and any amount of barley at 85¢ per cwt.” That same year, the mill’s name changed to Lehi Roller Mills.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, millers were transitioning from stone mills to roller mills, said Todd Berry, the mill’s current vice president of operations. By including “roller” in the mill’s name, the owners were letting everyone know they were using the very latest in milling technology.

In 1910, George Robinson purchased the mill from the co-op, beginning more than a century of mill ownership by the Robinson family. George focused on top-quality flour, much of it from partnerships with farmers in Cedar Valley, where

they dry-farmed Turkey Red wheat.

The story goes that wheat from Turkey traveled over with immigrant farmers who planted it in Kansas. The heirloom, hard red winter wheat is prized as an excellent baking flour with rich flavors and good hardiness. The image of a turkey represents this flour heritage when the mill’s bread flour appears on store shelves. The mill kept with the bird representation for marketing for its all-purpose flour, choosing a peacock.

George passed the business on to his sons, Sherman and Raymond. They eventually passed it on to another generation with Sherm Robinson, who began his apprenticeship at 9 years old.

THE FLOUR FROM Lehi Roller Mills has a lot of history to live up to. Its present-day millers work hard to keep that reputation of quality.

When making flour from wheat, everything hinges on the quality of the wheat.

“You can’t make good-quality flour out of poor-quality wheat,” Berry said. To ensure the best quality, the mill only purchases wheat grown in the Rocky Mountains, where the growing conditions affect the taste and the functionality of the flour.

Once the wheat arrives, workers clean it, then temper it, adding the correct amount of moisture to the wheat kernels

An employee puts bagged product into boxes. Brock Knight and Sheri Cutler stand in front of painted signs touting the mill’s Turkey Red and Peacock flour.

Lehi Mills

Actor Kevin Bacon portrays dance-crazy high schooler Ren McCormack, who worked – and danced – at Lehi Roller Mills in Footloose.

so the bran exterior can be separated easily. The key step is the milling process, in which opposing rollers gradually separate the bran from the flour. This prevents damaging the starch. After the wheat is broken up, it is sifted and separated according to particle size.

“These particles are then gradually milled down into smaller and smaller sizes until you have the perfect flour granulation,” Berry said.

When Sherm took over, he continued milling high-quality flour, but he also expanded the mill from selling flours to making and selling mixes – raspberry muffin is the best seller. Today, Lehi Roller Mills sells its flours and mixes under the shortened name Lehi Mills.

“Today, the word ‘roller’ doesn’t mean anything,” Berry said, “since all mills are now roller mills.”

Lehi Mills has an advantage over some mixing companies because its flour comes directly from the mill to the mixer, which means it doesn’t have to spend time debagging 50-pound bags of flour to get enough to put in the mixer – as much as 4,000 pounds. As a relatively small op-

eration, Lehi Mills produces 2 million pounds of flour each month, of which 150,000 pounds goes into its mixes.

THE MILL KEPT up its quality over the years, but by 2012, the business was struggling. Financial setbacks included the end of a longtime partnership with KFC, whose parent company, Yum! Brands, forced the large Harman KFC restaurant franchise to purchase its ingredients from them, no longer purchasing from Lehi Mills.

Pete Harman, who teamed with Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952 to open the world’s first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Salt Lake City, used to purchase flour from the mill to mix with the 11 herbs and spices to bread the chicken. Lehi Roller Mills supplied the Harmans with flour all through KFC’s rise to international prominence and would eventually blend the 11 herbs and spices with the flour and package it into 25-pound bags.

In 2012, the same year the KFC-Lehi Roller Mills partnership ended, Ken Brailsford realized his boyhood dream when his KEB Enterprises purchased the

Across the West and Toward the North

Paramount Pictures

The historic Lehi Roller Mills building features prominently on the flour’s packaging. Before it becomes flour, wheat arrives at the mill as whole kernels, which comprise three parts: bran, germ and endosperm.

mill. The investment wasn’t one where he simply wanted the real estate the mill stands on. He wanted to invest in the mill for generations more. As an example, Sherm Robinson stayed on because of his relationship with the farmers. Those partnerships are generations deep, and that’s part of what makes Lehi Mills’ flour premium.

The mill was renovated in 2019. It is recognized as a national historic landmark, and the community got nervous when the construction and painting began.

“We had a lot of people calling in a panic when we were doing that, thinking we were shutting it down,” KEB Enterprises Vice President Sheri Cutler said. “They wanted to know what we were doing to the mill, because it’s such a big part of the community.”

With a building standing for over 100 years, the history within its walls is generational. The mill has historical documents, such as some of the first flour purchases from 1906. The price of flour has been relatively stable for over 100 years. It wasn’t until the pandemic, when shoppers stocked up and left grocers’ shelves empty, that prices jumped dramatically.

The sudden increase in demand for flour impacted the small mill at that time, Cutler said. “We felt that pinch,” she said. “We had to limit how many bags we could sell to the public. Costco was begging us for more. It was stressful to keep up with the demand.”

The mill had to stop selling 25-pound bags directly to customers at the mill’s retail store, where flour sales initially spiked

Joshua Hardin

to more than 1,200 percent of average monthly sales. Flour products remained available at Costco, and the mill continued to supply bakeries, as well.

Lehi Mills’ biggest customers in Utah are Harmons and Kneaders. “Their bread that they make in their bakeries is our flour,” Lehi Mills General Manager Brock Knight said. The majority of Lehi Mills’ organic flour goes to bakeries on the West Coast, where demand for organic food is strongest.

DRIVING THROUGH LEHI today on Interstate 15, motorists see the silos painted with the iconic birds representing the mill’s premium flour products. The historic building sits on a busy intersection with fast-food franchises around it and new buildings popping up as part of the hotbed of tech companies known as Silicon Slopes.

However, people won’t see the halo that once graced Lehi Mills – the halo that helped the mill make its highly memorable appearance on the silver screen in the movie Footloose.

Back in the 1980s, before the mill put in the advanced filtration system it has today, flour dust floated above the mill at night. A movie producer happened to drive by the mill at dusk, when the flour dust above the buildings caught the light and put a halo over the mill. “He thought it was so iconic that he came in to talk to Sherm,” Knight said. He told him he wanted to make a movie there one day.

Lehi provided the ideal backdrop for the movie about a small town and a newcomer, played by Kevin Bacon, who moves there from the big city. The mill and the prairie land of Lehi set the stage for the story of young against old, where dancing and rock music weren’t allowed, but the high school kids planned a prom at the grain mill just outside the town limits. A mill with a halo seemed just the right spot for high school kids defiantly dancing at their prom.

The color of the mill’s roof has changed since its 1984 turn on the big screen, and a new building has gone up behind the main one, but Lehi Roller Mills otherwise looks the same as it did in Footloose, if not better. As the city grows around it, the mill remains its steadfast icon.

Wheels on SLICKROCK

by RACHEL FIXSEN

Moab’s Sand Flats Recreation Area overcomes lawless past to become four-wheel and mountain bike mecca

SAND FLATS ROAD leads steeply out of the Moab Valley, switchbacking up to the mesa top, where trails lead between and over ochre sandstone domes, fins and bowls. Campgrounds are tucked against pink and buff cliffs. Juniper trees and desert shrubs grow on the slopes and cling to boulders and crevices in the rocks.

The Sand Flats Recreation Area is a place where four-wheel drivers and mountain bikers enjoy the challenge and pure fun of the rolling, swooping terrain, especially where the surface is high-traction “slickrock,” the local name for sandstone turf. The area is beloved for its views looking down on the Moab Valley and Colorado River, or up to the La Sal Mountains, which, when capped with snow, contrast dramatically with the red sandstone. Wheels aren’t necessary to enjoy the views – they’re accessible by hiking, scrambling or from the comfort of a camp chair.

Side-by-sides drive single-file along an undulating trail in Sand Flats Recreation Area.

Joshua Hardin

The area is managed jointly by Grand County and the Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land. The partnership is one of a few of its kind, modeled after a similar local/federal partnership in Mill Creek Canyon outside of Salt Lake City. County employees staff an entry booth and collect fees that sustain operation and maintenance of the campgrounds, pit toilets, trash collection and patrols.

It looks much different than it did a few decades ago; community members have both fond and sad memories of Sand Flats’ former days.

“You can’t believe how bitchin’ it was here – the freedom there was here,” said Dale Parriott, who has lived in Moab since the 1970s but remembers it long before then. He visited his grandparents in Moab every summer as a child; the first time he visited Sand Flats was as an 8-year-old in the early 1950s.

“At 8 years old, my big deal was I wanted to ride in a Jeep,” Parriott said. His grandparents kept an old Army Jeep to access mining claims they had. “Everybody had a uranium claim in those days,” he said. Uranium mining was a boom industry in Moab starting with discoveries of the mineral in the 1950s. His dad took him and his 5-year-old brother for a Jeep ride at Sand Flats.

“We rode around on the slickrock up there, it was probably 20 minutes, but it was the world to me. I fell in love with the place right then,” Parriott said. He knew he would come back to Moab. “It’s the only place I ever wanted to live.”

In 1963, between high school and college, Parriott spent the whole summer in Moab. With friends, including local mechanic Andy Anderson, he explored the area now famous as the Slickrock Trail on motorcycles and scooters, years before it was mapped out and marked as an official trail.

Parriott is from California, and he attended college and started a family and career there. But it didn’t suit him.

“There’s a law for this and a law for that” in California, he said. The final straw was when he got a ticket from a highway patrol officer for failing to have an off-road sticker on his motorcycle – even though the bike was in the back of his truck, with the motor removed. He fought the ticket in court and won, and three days later sold his home in California and moved to where he’s always wanted to be.

It was the late 1970s, and Moab wasn’t the tourist hub it is today. There were only about 10 people that were interested in riding dirt bikes in the desert, Parriott said. On Sunday afternoons, they used sandy washes, cow trails and old mining and ranch roads to explore the big empty spaces.

A visitor dismounts from his bike to get the lay of the land. A mountain biker passes a mirrorlike puddle on the Slickrock Practice Loop, a moderate route that helps people prepare for the Slickrock Trail.

Joshua Hardin

Bret Edge

THE URANIUM BOOM WENT bust in the 1980s, and many Moabites left. Residents who lived through that era recall empty houses and closed storefronts.

Bill Groff was a helicopter and airplane pilot working for a mining company in the early ’80s. His brother, Robin, and his dad, John, also worked in the mining industry. In 1982, all three lost their jobs within six months of each other. Rather than leave, they opened a bike shop.

“How I ever talked my dad and brother into doing this, I’ll never know,” Groff said. He was the cycling enthusiast of the family at the time, pedaling a road bike on pavement.

The Groffs opened Rim Cyclery, which is still in business and is the oldest bike shop in a town now teeming with them. They placed an ad in Bicycling Magazine, which had a directory for shops all over the United States. “Finest bike shop in Southeast Utah,” they claimed in the ad –indisputable, as it was the only bike shop in the region.

Mountain biking started as a niche sport in California when bike buffs started adding extra gears to their single-speed beach cruisers. The Groffs soon got interested in this new type of bike. Groff says it was either him or his brother – he can’t remember which – who first rode a mountain bike on the Slickrock Trail at Sand Flats. Up to that time, it was mainly a motorized-use trail, but it turned out to be ideal terrain for mountain biking. Robin pushed for Rim Cyclery to carry the new kind of bike. Groff, the road cyclist, resisted at first, but they ended up stocking early mountain bike models.

“He was right,” Groff said. With a little publicity, the Slickrock Trail soon became “the premier ride” for mountain bikers, he said.

In 1985, the brothers hosted a gathering they called the Fat Tire Bike Festival. Later that year, a new publication called Mountain Bike Magazine described the gathering and featured Sand Flats on the cover of its first issue. The following year, the Fat

Bill Groff owns Rim Cyclery. Dale Parriott rides a scooter partially made of washing machine parts.

Though rain falls on the La Sal Mountains in the distance, the weather is perfect for a hike on the Juniper Trail. Sand Flats Recreation Area accommodates hikers, bikers and off-road motorized vehicles.

Murice Miller

Bret Edge

Murice Miller

A side-by-side climbs Hells Gate. As challenging as this route appears, it looks even more formidable behind the wheel.

Kevin Mikkelsen

Among the colorfully named Sand Flats features is this hoodoo, known as either Elvis’ Hammer or the Olympic Torch, depending on whom one asks. A mountain biker descends the Eagle Eye Trail.

Tire Bike Festival got bigger. People came to ride trails all around Moab, meet elite athletes and industry insiders, compete in a Halloween costume contest, win prizes, parade through town and party.

Not everyone loved the visiting bikers, but, Groff said, “There wasn’t anything else going on, other than the Jeep Safari.” The Jeep Safari, which continues today, is an annual spring gathering of off-road enthusiasts. Trails in Sand Flats have long been on Jeepers’ bucket lists.

THROUGH THE 1980S into the 1990s, Sand Flats steadily gained popularity as a destination for motorcycles, Jeeps and mountain bikes. It had also long been a place for locals to camp and for teenagers to blow off steam.

“Kids had been partying up there for years,” Parriott said. As Sand Flats gained attention, it wasn’t just local kids coming

to get drunk and leave a mess. A lot of the trail users were partiers too, and teens from Colorado and the Wasatch Front were joining the scene during their spring breaks.

“For a long time, it was free camping, it was a free-for-all,” Groff said. “That’s where all the keg parties were.”

It was getting out of hand. Parriott remembers an incident in which a young Moab local terrorized out-of-town Sand Flats tourists by driving a truck through their campfires. That was the turning point, he said, that prompted a general impression that the area was being trampled. But there are reports of other “final straws,” especially what became known as the Easter Weekend Riots. A 1996 article from the Chronicle of Community describes a Mad Max-style scene.

“In the course of one wild evening, sheriff’s deputies and federal agency rangers had to flee Sand Flats when drunken

crowds began throwing bottles and rocks,” the article reported. “The campers tore up ancient juniper trees to fuel their bonfires, drove with abandon across the fragile desert landscape, and used the whole outdoors as their toilet.”

“It was the Wild West,” said Andrea Brand, who has been the director of Sand Flats for nearly two decades. “It was pretty insane.”

Concerned community members and federal land managers formed the Canyon Country Partnership and came up with a management plan for Sand Flats. In 1994, Moab resident Craig Bigler, in the role of facilitator for the new partnership, hired a Sand Flats crew. They created a brochure and opened the entrance fee booth, installed toilets and barriers to keep traffic on roads and trails, and cleaned up litter. They sold firewood to discourage visitors from burning trees.

Tom Till

IT WASN’T A 180-degree turnaround.

Brand moved to Moab in 1988 and began working at Sand Flats in 1998. Even after the partnership took on management of the area, she remembers bullet holes in the fee booth window, visitors having their tents shot with paintballs, limbs ripped off trees for fires and huge amounts of trash, sometimes including items like abandoned couches.

“It was very depressing back then to see the destruction,” Brand said. “Every patrol, there would be tree limbs in the fire rings. Our trees are ancient trees, and they’re shade for those campsites.”

It took relentless public relations campaigning, education and, in the end, law enforcement to start to change the way people acted at Sand Flats. In the early 2000s, two BLM rangers started making regular patrols in Sand Flats. Brand credits them with ending the partying scene and making it safe for families. And some of the wayward youths from the old days bring a new perspective when they come back as adults.

“We still have a lot of those same people that have grown up and matured, and they come back with their families,” Brand said. “They’ll say, ‘Oh yeah, I came here in the ’80s and ’90s – I was part of the problem.’ ”

Today, Sand Flats seems clean and orderly. The dedication and work of land managers and community members have helped keep the popular destination feel-

ing like a welcoming place.

Sand Flats’ managers have taken steps to make it easy for visitors to follow the rules. That includes marking trails very clearly, so people have no doubt about where they can park and camp, Brand said, as well as other “little infrastructure things where you don’t have to tell someone what to do because it’s designed right, so it’s apparent and obvious what they’re supposed to do.”

Even those who loved the freedom of “the old days” are impressed with the operation of Sand Flats now.

“When the county partnered with the BLM, I was not for it,” Groff said. “I thought it was going to stymie everything. It didn’t – I was wrong on that one. They’re doing a fabulous job.”

Parriott agrees. He’s been on the Sand Flats Stewardship Committee for several years and has been impressed with Brand’s work.

“Sadly, humans always take a little bit more than they should,” Parriott said. “Without an intelligent structure, when you get a mass of people, it doesn’t work anymore.”

Those who knew Sand Flats in the early days may feel a twinge of nostalgia for the times before signs and kiosks and a fee booth, but visitors today can still feel the freedom of wide-open spaces in the incredible scenery and engaging trails at the remarkable place known as Sand Flats Recreation Area.

RETREAT TO A

Explore Utah

CULTURE. ADVENTURE. HISTORY.

by RACHEL FIXSEN

CULTURE

ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE & SIAMSA

MARCH 12 • SALT LAKE CITY

Salt Lake City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Siamsa is Utah’s second-largest annual parade, trailing only the city’s Pioneer Day extravaganza. However, it is quite possibly the state’s largest siamsa. Pronounced SHEEM-suh, siamsa is Irish Gaelic for “celebration,” which takes the form of a Celtic Festival in the Gateway District.

The parade got its start in 1977. Four friends toasting St. Patrick’s Day at a Salt Lake bar were a few drinks in when they were moved to conduct an impromptu parade honoring the patron saint of Ireland. They marched down the street singing songs of Irish pride, gathering more and more followers, until they met with a cadre of motorcycle cops – who, after sizing up the group, decided to give them an escort.

Sean Clark has attended, in person or virtually, every event since his mother carried him as a baby in the 1978 parade. He’s now the president of the Hibernian Society

of Utah and still loves the spirit and camaraderie of the event, where floats, folk music, dance and food showcase Irish culture.

“The crowd is as gregarious as the parade,” Clark said. “Everyone’s wearing green, and there’s just a jovial spirit to the day.” Grandparents, kids and pets attend, with some people dying their dogs green in honor of the holiday.

Clark loves it so much that one year, when a work trip conflicted with the festival date, he Facetimed with his family from an Irish pub in San Diego, while they rode a parade float with a giant flatscreen TV broadcasting his Facetime video. He sang the Irish anthem in Gaelic, accompanying himself on the guitar. His 12-year-old son has now learned the Gaelic, lyrics too.

The holiday celebrates Irish heritage, but the festival is open to everyone. As Clark says, you don’t have to be Irish to enjoy St. Patrick’s Day. irishinutah.com.

People don’t have to be from Ireland – or even from this galaxy – to enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

WHERE TO EAT PIPER DOWN PUBLIC HOUSE

The Irish spirit continues at this oldworld style pub. Bar food includes classics like onion rings and wings, as well as Irish items like stew and Irish nachos, which include corned beef. More than 20 beers are on tap and dozens more bottled varieties are on the menu. 1492 S. State St. (801) 468-1492.

WHAT TO DO CITY CREEK PARK

The park is a peaceful oasis of nature just blocks from the center of downtown.

Sculptures, gardens and shady trees create a welcoming place to wander on paths along the flowing City Creek, which was an essential water source for early pioneers in the valley. Now, it’s a relaxing place to enjoy spring weather. 110 N. State St. (801) 972-7800.

Hibernian Society of Utah

SPORTS PROFESSIONAL BULL RIDERS

APRIL 1-2 • IVINS

Tuacahn Amphitheater is known for musical and theatrical performances, but once a year, the venue transforms into a dirt-floor arena for an exciting, gritty competition of professional bull riders. The athletes try to hold on to a huge bucking beast – the attempt only counts if they can stay on for at least 8 seconds – and receive a score out of 100; 50 possible points awarded to the rider, and 50 are for the bull. Out of as many as 50 competitors, three winners share a purse of $20,000. Kevin Smith, CEO of Tuachan, said the tiered seating of the venue means every seat is a good seat.

“In the first four or five rows, you could get dirt kicked up on you, or snot from the bulls,” he said. “You feel like you’re right there next to the bulls, because you are.”

Though the action is intense, the animals are very well-treated. “They’re not being injured in any way,” he said. “They know their role, and they go out there and do it.”

Animals on the stage add an element of realism and improvisation to a performance. One year, crews surprised the crowd by bringing a camel into the bull riding arena as a gag, supplying the rodeo clown with a goldmine of jokes.

Rodeo clowns and entertainers keep the crowd engaged between bull riders, and

there’s usually a musical act. The show ends with fireworks that echo and glow against the red cliffs that surround the outdoor amphitheater. The show’s variety is a crowd pleaser that appeals to the cowboy or cowgirl in everyone. (435) 652-3200.

WHERE TO STAY

RED MOUNTAIN RESORT

Red rock desert surrounds this full-service resort just five minutes from Tuacahn. Guests can go hiking and biking or pursue other outdoor adventures. There are indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a spa and salon, and a full-service restaurant. 1275 E. Red Mountain Circle. (435) 652-5736.

WHAT TO DO SNOW CANYON STATE PARK

The setting for several classic Western films, this beautiful park features colorful cliffs, sand dunes, ancient lava flows, slot canyons and petroglyphs. Visitors can enjoy rugged scrambles or cruise on a bike the length of the canyon on a paved trail, then stay the night in a campground. 1002 N. Snow Canyon Road. (435) 628-2255.

Bucking bulls and professional bull riders put on a thrilling performance at Tuacahn Amphitheater.

Red, White & Snow

March 3-5 • Park City

This weekend festival celebrating food and wine benefits the National Ability Center, a nonprofit that supports adaptive sports and activities. The festival schedule includes a ski slope-side wine tasting at Deer Valley Resort, elegant dinners, a gala auction and afterparty. (435) 649-3991.

Outsiders Photography Conference

March 4-6 • Kanab

Participants in this intensive, three-day conference can sharpen their outdoor photography skills in workshops with professionals among dramatic outdoor vistas. Speakers include award-winning National Geographic photographers. Attendees enjoy catered meals, have their work critiqued and participate in contests. outsidersphoto.com.

Healthcare Stories

March 24 • Salt Lake City

University of Utah Health brings stories from healthcare workers to bring light to the vital work they do. The event features stories from the age of COVID, told by scholars, doctors and frontline medical professionals at Kingsbury Hall on the university campus. (801) 581-7100.

Master Singers: Easter Concert

April 10 • Cedar City

The Master Singers men’s choir of Cedar City gives a performance celebrating Easter. Wearing their signature white suit jackets and bowties, they harmonize classic and traditional songs. The Easter concert is at the Heritage Center Theater; admission is free. (435) 865-2893.

Diamond G Rodeos and Ranches

OUTDOORS

RED ROCK ATV JAMBOREE

APRIL 20-23 • KANAB

The

stunning red rock country of Kanab sets the scene for adventure and camaraderie.

Tony Wright was born and raised in the Kanab area and, after four-wheeling there for 30 years, knows the terrain “probably about as well as anybody,” he said. He’s one of the organizers of the Red Rock ATV Jamboree, being held for its third year this April. Last year the event drew about 300 people to participate in guided rides, share breakfasts and dinners, enjoy an ice cream social and win raffle prizes.

Wright’s main job is to keep the gathering running smoothly, but if one of the guides – mostly local members of the Utah/ Arizona ATV Club – can’t make it, he’ll fill in to lead one of the many rides offered. His favorite is East Clark Bench because of the variety of things to see on the way, such as

white, natural rock pillars rising as high as 10 feet, which stand in stark contrast to the red rock surface of the ground. There are also vistas that look through canyons and down to Lake Powell, a historic homestead cabin and a windmill along the route.

A few “extreme” routes are limited to expert riders only. Last year, two sideby-sides turned over in Tom’s Canyon; luckily, no one was hurt, and the vehicles were able to drive out after being righted. Other, more moderate routes focus on the scenery and destinations rather than technical obstacles.

“We invite everybody to come down,” Wright said. “It’s the best country to ride.” (435) 644-3696.

WHERE TO STAY PURPLE SAGE INN

This bed and breakfast was originally a residence for a Latter-day Saint pioneer and his four wives. It was later converted into a hotel and hosted some famous guests, including Western novelist Zane Grey. Today’s guests enjoy the quaint country feel and in-house breakfasts. 54 S. Main St. (435) 644-5377.

WHAT TO DO KANAB HERITAGE HOUSE MUSEUM

The Heritage House was built in 1892 by early settlers and was restored in the 1970s. Guided tours, offered every hour on the hour when the house is open, allow modern-day people to learn more about life in pioneer times and fascinating facts about Kanab history. 115 S. Main St. kanabheritagehouse.com.

St. George Art Festival

April 15-16 • St. George

More than 100 artists and tens of thousands of visitors celebrate the arts in St. George’s historic town square. Music, food and creative activities for children complement the booths where artists display painting, photography, jewelry, garden art, wood carving and more. (435) 634-5747.

Easter Egg Hunt

April 16 • Draper

Children enjoy hunting for candy-filled eggs at Galena Park in Draper. Four lawns are prepared for four different age groups – 0-2, 2-4, 5-7 and 8-12 years old – so kids can be challenged at their level. The Easter Bunny is making an appearance and sticking around for photos. (801) 576-6584.

National Park Week Kickoff

April 16 • Multiple locations

National Park Week celebrates natural wonders across the country with special programs and events. Utah is home to five national parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce and Zion. Entry fees are waived on April 16 to launch National Park Week, during which these and other parks across the country are hosting variety of special programs, events and digital experiences. nps.gov.

Baby people pet baby animals at what might be the cutest event ever held in the state of Utah.

FAMILY

BABY ANIMAL DAYS

MARCH 31-APRIL 2; APRIL 6-9 • WELLSVILLE

The cuteness levels are off the chart at this event at the American West Heritage Center, where people can spend the day petting all manner of adorable baby animals. The festival is so popular that, for the second year in a row, it has been extended from one weekend to two.

Baby Animal Days is the biggest annual fundraiser for the center, a living history museum depicting rural life in the Cache Valley from 1820 to 1920. On both weekends, visitors get the chance to cuddle baby farm animals: chicks, ducklings, goat kids, lambs, calves, a foal and more. The tiny baby turtles are a huge favorite.

“They’re about the size of a 50 cent piece,” said Sarah Gunnell, the center’s office man-

ager. “The cutest thing is when you catch them when they’re asleep. You hold them and warm them up, and they poke out their little heads and blink their little eyes.”

The first weekend also features exotic animals from Utah Petting Zoo Gone Wild; last year, there were baby wallabies, yaks, camels and zebras. The next weekend features black bear cubs from Yellowstone Bear World.

Visitors can tour the historic farmhouse, farm shop, mountain man cabin and blacksmith forge. Guests can sheer sheep, play pioneer games and take a wagon ride. Vendors sell food and more. Event admission is $9 for ages 3 and up – and for an extra $3, visitors can get an up-close look at the center’s bison herd. (435) 245-6050.

Gary Bird

WHERE TO EAT ANGIE’S RESTAURANT

This classic American restaurant is where the locals eat – in fact, that’s the restaurant’s slogan. Breakfasts include omelets, skillets and fried scones. The dinner menu has burgers, pot roast, chicken fried steak and more. For dessert, the Kitchen Sink is a banana split with two whole bananas, mounds of ice cream and three toppings; anyone who finishes it gets a bumper sticker. 690 Main St., Logan. (435) 752-9252.

WHERE TO GO CACHE VALLEY FUN PARK

This is another establishment that lives up to its slogan, which proclaims the park “the funnest place in town.”

Activities here include bowling, roller skating, arcades, axe throwing and two kinds of laser tag. The park is also home to northern Utah’s largest indoor Soft Play jungle-gym playground. 255 E. 1770 North, Logan. (435) 792-4000.

Kanab Film Festival

April 21-24 • Kanab

Local Kanab couple Jeff and Britt Roth launched this festival in 2018. People can enter their own films or buy tickets to attend the festival as a viewer. Industry workshops, parties, meals and swag are all part of the festival along with a slate of independent original films. Awards are given in several categories. kanabfilm.com

Earth Day Celebration

April 22 • Park City

Park City nonprofit Recycle Utah sponsors an annual recognition of our amazing planet. From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Wasatch Brew Pub in Park City hosts an event with dinner and drinks, live music and a silent auction. The event is for people age 21 and older. Registration includes dinner and two drink tickets. Proceeds support Recycle Utah’s mission to help citizens of this state lead sustainable lives. (435) 649-9698.

this sacred landscape.

last laugh

story by KERRY SOPER illustration by JOSH TALBOT

The Utah Tradition of Overly Creative Dance Invitations

WHAT IS THE deal with the way high schoolers in this state ask each other to date dances in the most complicated ways? In Utah you can’t just ask someone to a formal high school dance over the phone, with a text or even face to face – that would be too easy and straightforward.

Instead, you must invest an insane amount of time and creative effort, more than you would ever actually apply to homework.

Does it date back to a rural past, when teenagers were bored by repetitive farm chores and had to infuse their sober lives with bit of creative mayhem? Or is there a deeper, evolutionary explanation at work – something about a young person trying to show a potential mate that they have the raw intelligence to make bad puns with randomly arranged candy bars on a neon-colored poster board?

Whatever it is, here is a helpful guide

for the teenager who is newly arrived to the state.

A Punny Gag: A young man from Pleasant Grove scattered Hershey’s Kisses across a girl’s front sidewalk; his giant sign read, “Now that I’ve kissed the ground you’ve walked on, how about going to homecoming with me?”

Sappy? Yes. Hygienic? No. But flattering and relatively clear, I guess. In Logan, a young woman delivered a box that said, “I know this is cheesy, but…” On the inside was a homemade pizza that spelled out “Prom.” Hard to say no when a free meal is involved.

Lowbrow Wordplay: If basic puns leave you cold, spice things up with some mild innuendo or potty humor. A junior from Orem delivered a bunch of sweet rolls to her date’s porch with the note, “Can I haul your buns to prom?” Cheeky, right? Ha –sorry about that.

In Spanish Fork, a young man spread

garden peas across his date’s porch and left a sign that said, “Sorry I pead all over your porch! But prom?” I know, it doesn’t really make logical sense. Bonus points, though, for a nice visual gag.

The Grand Gesture: If you have talent, do something even more impressive. One young guy from Farmington re-created the “Starry Night” painting on his potential date’s windshield and added the inscription, “Will you Van Gogh to prom with me?” (Too bad he didn’t stop there; he also filled her trunk with about 50 fake severed ears.)

An ambitious young woman from Provo created her own picture book with the invite hidden on the final page. She then hid the book in the public library and arranged for the guy, who actually worked there, to randomly pull it out of the stacks and read it aloud to a group of parents and children at story time. Kind of hard for him to say no under those

circumstances, right? Too bad that the complexity of this stunt almost landed the young woman in the hospital from nervous exhaustion.

Now let’s cover some strategies to avoid:

The Pain in the Butt Prank: If you’re not careful, an impressive spectacle can turn into low-grade vandalism and cute puzzles can morph into cruel scavenger hunts.

A classic mistake is filling the target’s bedroom with something visually impressive but difficult to clean up: hundreds of balloons, a ton of old bananas, a forest of dried-out Christmas trees, or a carpet covered with glitter. The use of fire is also a bad idea, especially if it involves messages scorched into lawns.

The irritation of the invitee can be further inflamed if there’s an impossible challenge: finding the one soggy, microscopic note hidden in a sea of raisins; requiring the girl to melt a boulder-size block of ice (something I did as a Provo High senior back in 1985); or piecing together a message scattered among thousands of identi-

cally shaped shreds. One young man from Ogden forced his date into a $700 dollar car repair when the packing peanuts he used to fill her car were accidentally sucked into the vehicle’s air conditioning system.

The Live Animal Lollapalooza: You should also avoid involving real animals or live human beings. I’ve heard of young people using kittens, homing pigeons, turtles and confused rabbits. One bitter mother from Herriman had to spend $200 to get an “invitation puppy” neutered, up to date on its shots – and then eventually rehomed.

When it comes to using human props, there’s always the danger of someone getting injured, like the kid in the East Millcreek area of Salt Lake who was strung over the roof of the house like an angel. I’m not clear about the specific injuries he endured after the rope inevitably broke, but his friends report that he’s now even worse at math.

In Brigham City, a very trusting family allowed a 5-year-old sister to be enclosed

in a box, delivered to a front door and then instructed to remain mute for several hours as the date’s family tried to figure out who the heck she was and why she was in their house.

Finally, remember that you can always Swim Against the Current in clever ways. Consider the boy from Provo who broke from convention and just left a crumpled paper sack on a girl’s porch with a sloppily-penned note attached: “Here’s a bagel. Want to go to prom?”

If we could just get a minority of Utah teens to follow this guy’s lead, can you imagine the amount of woman- and manpower that could be redirected in productive ways? Our state would probably produce a couple of Nobel prize winners (not the angel kid, of course) and maybe a few Mozarts and Van Goghs (both ears intact though, hopefully).

Oh well. In the meantime, don’t be surprised if you open your front door in the near future and there’s a horse on your front lawn with a sign attached, asking your daughter to indicate “Yea” or “Neigh.”